


Too Bad

by h311agay



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Angst, Death, M/M, Self-Harm, This is all Grisha's fault
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-28
Updated: 2015-02-28
Packaged: 2018-03-15 16:38:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 674
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3454214
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/h311agay/pseuds/h311agay
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This takes place in an AU where Grisha is a scientist that sends children through trials. If they are deemed sufficient, they are injected with the Titan Virus that gives them shifting abilities and regeneration abilities. Currently only a one-shot but if enough reviews and desire to go further, I'll make a chaptered version. This one takes place after Bertholdt has been injected. They're around 16 or 17 here and have been in the facility for about 5 or 6 years.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Too Bad

He was brought back screaming, his body convulsing and neck tense and veins popping. Reiner scrambled off of his bed, blanket tangling in his feet as the door was shut after the dark-haired boy was thrown to the ground. "Bertholdt!" Reiner gathered his lover into his hands, shaking him slightly. "Calm down, you're okay. You're here with me." Bertholdt made a pained noise but his screaming stopped, his green eyes rolling back into his skull as his body trembled. He clung to Reiner, rolling up and groaning.

"Reiner, I'm dying," he gasped out, clutching the blonde tighter and convulsing again. Reiner lifted Bertholdt up and brought him over the their bed, which they had made larger by pushing both beds together. He held the panicking Berthodlt tightly, ignoring how the other's fingernails dug into his skin and broke it open.

Bertholdt thrashed on the bed, eyes opening and closing, filled with pain and agony. "I'm dying," he reiterated. "I'm dying. It's n-not working for me... Not-- not like it did for you and Annie and--" he choked, his voice cracking as he screamed again, body arching off the bed and his head falling to the side. "A-And Eren..." he cried weakly. Tears streaked down his face, staining his cheeks and making the sheets dark with water. "Reiner--" he whimpered, pulling himself up some and planting a panicked kiss on Reiner's mouth. He tried to kiss him again but his jaw tightened and he tensed up, pain racking his body. He pulled himself again, kissing his boyfriend once more only to be interrupted by yet another scream.

Reiner watched helplessly as Bertholdt writhed and screamed. Bertholdt was right. None of the other subjects reacted to the injection like this, not the ones that survived it at least. He winced as Bertholdt arched off the bed again, more pathetic sounds escaping his lips. He kissed back when Bertholdt pulled him into yet another kiss. He knew this was Bertholdt's way of saying goodbye. Of saying that he loved Reiner. He wanted to tell Bertholdt that everything would be okay, like he had when they first brought him back. He couldn't lie to him, though, not now. For a moment, there was nothing but silence, nothing but Bertholdt's small squirms. There was a sudden, terrifying sound. It sounded like skin tearing and Reiner glanced down. His heart dropped at what he saw.

Bertholdt was tearing the skin off of his face and neck. His wrists, it peeled away, revealing the bloody, shining muscle beneath. Reiner grabbed his hands, pulling them away and yelling out in surprise. The blood didn't evaporate as his own did when spilled. Nor like Annie's or Eren's or Ymir's. It was the blood of a human and that knowledge made Reiner's stomach cold. "I got you, baby," he muttered, as his hands became slick with the other's blood. Bertholdt made a pitiful sound, his eyes sliding onto Reiner's face with the fearful look of someone who was dying.

He nodded, his breathing ragged and uncontrolled. "R-Reiner," he mumbled, body no longer squirming with spasms. Reiner watched as the light left his eyes and dread filled him. The experiment was a failure and now Reiner was losing the only thing that kept him sane in this place. Before long, Bertholdt's breathing and movements stopped all together.

He was dead.

Reiner sat there, holding Bertholdt's limp wrists, still straddling his hips. His heart pounded and he could feel tears pushing against the back of his eyes. What he saw next, he was unsure of the feeling that filled him. The wounds slowly began to fix them selves, the skin crawling back up Bertholdt's checks and neck, the blood steaming and disappearing. Bertholdt blinked his eyes, but the light that had drained was still missing. He looked at Reiner with the eyes of a dead man. 

"Bertl, it worked. You're okay. You're alive," he whispered as he got off of Bertholdt. The dark haired man simply rolled over and pulled himself to Reiner's chest. 

"Too bad."


End file.
